This is me! Circa 1972-1974. I have my two favorite objects: My favorite book, Little House on the Prairie and my dear Raggedy Ann who as you can see, is now holding "me" just as I used to hold her! Here's the weird thing- I didn't even think my doll really looked like me until I was reviewing my pictures and then it was creepily evident that she looks just like I did way back when. I loved doing this. I know I will sound so "new age-ish" when I say this, but doing this project made me love the little girl that I was in a way that I never have before. So thanks, Claire!

Creative funding....

Marie, the coordinator behind the Memory Box Artist Program has put out a call for help. There are hospitals in our program that have run out of boxes. I’ve decided to sell my two completed Month of Softies submissions to earn some money for supplies to get boxes made and shipped. I listed both on ebay this morning. These are the softies listed:

Raggedy Old Alice

Mademoiselle Chatte

I'm still here!

The bedroom project has seen considerable progress. Last weekend, Earl and I hung the new ceiling fan (so pretty!). I created the upholstered headboard and the bed skirt. We made up the bed with it’s pretty new linens. Earl even put in a pewter finish light switch cover that matches the hardware on the fan. I painted my fabulous thrift store mirror ($4.99, thank you very much!) in a silver finish. And did a distressed white paint finish on three tin “ceiling” squares I got at Walmart for $3 a piece. It’s all looking good, but there is plenty left to do! I still need to:

Make the Roman shades
Paint and stencil the ceiling
Organize the desk area
Clean out and organize the closet
Fix the drywall around the new closet doors
Paint the closet doors and add molding
Paint Earl’s dresser and my jewelry armoire
The fun stuff (i.e. add accessories!)

Whew! It looks like so much when I list it!

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Also, I’ve gotten a little further with my Month of Softies submission. My little Bettsi now has braids. This was tricky because the real me does not, and never has had, thick hair. As a girl, I taught myself how to braid on a doll’s hair (how ironic!) and began to wear braids in my hair almost every day. They were scrawny, fine little things! But when you make a doll, it takes a lot of “hair” to cover her bald little head. When I started braiding all that hair, I was getting these huge monster braids. I had to figure something out so this is what I came up with: I sewed the “bottom” layer of her hair close to her head. Then I cut it off before the place where the braids start. I took the “top” layer and made two braids. It turned out really well. They still look better than my own braids ever did! I don’t know how to re-create all my wispy “fly-a-ways”!

Now I’ve got to hustle and “get ‘er done”! The end of March is practically minutes away!

Hello, Lonely Blog!

Poor, poor neglected blog. Were you ready to call the blog protection agency? I've been so very, very busy. It's been a frenzy of blatant consumerism here. Yay for tax refunds! Boo for husbands who love computer buying! My home has to be completely re-arranged in order to make room for the new cool computer which lives in my bedroom. I've taken this opportunity (!) to finally decorate our room. It's really been a mess. I'm excited about the changes, but the process doesn't thrill me.

The room will be so lovely! I already have blue (periwinkle) walls, but the ceiling will be painted a nice, fresh white. I will also be stencilling some nice scroll-like motifs in the corners and around the ceiling fan in the same periwinkle as the walls. Yes, ceiling fan. I would like a fabulous, romantic chandelier, but this is for my husband, who absolutely must have air circulating around constantly. But it's nice. A pewter finish, with a faceted glass "salad bowl" light fixture. (Don't know how else to explain it!). All white bedding. White roman shades. Black desk and hutch that look like the stuff from Pottery Barn's, but really came from Target! Two vintage dressers that will sport nice white gloss paint. And that's about it. We replaced our closet doors (mirror sliders) with shutter type bifolds. Much nicer. I hope the finished result will look calm, clean, but eclectic-vintage at the same time.

But I am so behind on my crafty internet world stuff. My friend Josephine is sick and I haven't even emailed her, so that's the next order of business. I am half done with my Month of Softies submission-I must get her done! Email piling up in the old inbox. Grrrr. Must get back to endless "to do" list. Good-bye, dear blog. Be good while Mommy's gone.

Crinched = Tired

About mid-week I always seem to reach "critical mass". All my good intentions on Sunday about keeping the house picked up, staying on top of the laundry, etc. seem to fly out the window. By Wednesday, I just want beer and snacks and to be left alone. I don't pick up and we begin the slide into the weekend where I will once more be overwhelmed by the mess and resentful of the work. Blah. On Saturday, I'll shovel out the main living areas and get no real cleaning done on the rest of the house. I need little fairies to follow my children around...

Tuesday night I started my Month of Softies project. Self portrait of myself at age 9. It will be groovy. Plaid bell bottom pants and granny glasses! It's been good though. I'm seeing myself less harshly and more as a little girl, which is nice. So far, I've only made my fabric selections and started the body. Poor little dolly, half stuffed and forgotten in my "bag of tricks" that I tote back and forth to work with me.

Alice is official!

I emailed Claire about my Raggedy Old Alice being missing in action and she very kindly put the doll up in the gallery! And even better, she gave me a compliment! She said, "I am a fan of your new blog! It's really nice to read about the doll making process. Xx, Claire" Woohoo! Loobylu is one of my favorite places on the web and to hear her say something nice like that just made my day! (And, did you see how she signed it? That means she loves me!)

And something else fun: Montage-A-Google. How can I describe this? It's like a google image search, but after you put in your keyword and it does it's search, you click "create montage" and it makes a wonderful collage of images that match your keyword. Try it-you'll like it!

The only thing left for me to say is, I'm glad I have a wonderful boss like Steve. He is very kind about my excessive internet usage (addiction!). Thanks, Steve!

Oh Happy Day!

He is finished! And adorable! Neighborhood children were in the house when I finished him and nobody could get enough of him. I have hardly gotten to play with him! Such a simple toy and yet, so entertaining. (I can't help myself..must have more exclamation points!) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I'm a little excited. My boys have loved their dolls, but this guy is really special. I don't think Happy Clowners will ever see ebay-he's just too cute. (kawaii, as my daughter, Carmen would say!)

Puppet Master, Eric

Dance, Happy, Dance!

He's in the groove!

Check out the shoes!

Month of Softies

Waaaahhhhh! *cries like a baby*
I'm not in the gallery at Month of Softies! I don't know what happened. I emailed Claire with my submission, but somehow I've been forgotten. Oh well, I participated even though it may not show and I really like my Raggedy Old Alice.
Boy, some of the submissions over there are fabulous! Jenny B. Harris' cowgirl Alice is so, so cute. And Mimi Kirchner, one of my favorite dollmakers crocheted amazing tiny tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum. And I still have a lot more to look at! I love Month of Softies. Really, man.

Little postscript about Happy: I finished his cute shoes and I did decide that he needed ears. They are darling and I'll post a photo soon.

Happy Clowners

I've been working on a very fun doll all week. I am making a marionette clown from Edith Flack Ackley's book, Marionettes, copyright 1929. I am a huge EFA fan. Her dolls are just so sweet! I first discovered them at Rag Doll Room, but they are too cute to call rag dolls. Happy Clowners is my first marionette and I have been having such a good time making him. He is almost done with his costuming and then I will string him! We are all excited about playing with him! I am debating over whether or not he needs ears, so I will welcome any input. I tried to give him a sweet face because my boys were concerned that a clown would be "creepy". I feel that I succeeded. So here he is:

his gangly naked self

almost done dressing him

His cute face!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday, dear Sandra!
Happy birthday to you!

We've been friends since the fifth grade! You taught me how to match my clothes! You supported me in my drawing! You stayed in contact with me through my widowhood! You took me to Seattle! You make me laugh!

Seriously, I was one sad little girl when you found me. Thank you for reaching out to me and continuing to do so through all of my ups and downs.

I am so happy to be your friend-I hope this is a great birthday for you!

A little motivation

Here's a quote I picked up at Trevor's Blog:
" I would rather be a failure doing something I love
than being a success doing something I hate." - George Burns

I like that. I know my little drawings and dollies are not "art", but they make me happy. When I am not creating something, my life feels very flat. Adopted at birth, I grew up in a non-crafty family. I was a little oddball-always scrounging for materials and wrapping my barbies in scraps. When it came time for college, I wanted art, but my mom thought I should be practical. She liked the idea of me being a legal secretary! I am an office manager at a small land surveying firm. I'm not complaining...I make a decent wage and I have a great boss and great co-workers, but.... Well, let's just say that it doesn't inspire me or excite me. I've always wanted to teach my kids to follow their dreams...to do what they want with their careers. I think I'll share George's quote with them.

A little rant

I just need to rant a little bit. I know this is supposed to be my craft blog, but hey, hardly anyone reads it and it IS mine. So I can do what I want. So there!

Stupid USBank! Stupid, stupid, stupid! On the evening of Feb. 28th, I deposited my husband's paycheck. Before the deposit we had .36 in the bank. That means I had a $100 available to me from my deposit. So I took $100 out of the ATM for groceries, gas, beer..you know, important stuff. The next morning I'm at my desk and I call in a prescription refill to Kaiser to be mailed to me. An hour later I go to lunch and walk my paycheck into the bank. I just discovered that I've been charged a $33 overdraft fee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does this seem right? I called the bank and talked to "Sunny" (who definitely wasn't!) and she said that at the time I made the prescription refill, I didn't have any funds available to me. So it counted as an overdraft, thence the fee. So I called my branch manager, Gloria, and she said it doesn't matter that I deposited the night before and that I deposited one hour after the call to Kaiser. At the time I called Kaiser, I had .36 available. And she would not reverse the charge. I obviously was not trying to spend money that I didn't have. If my deposit was pending, then why wouldn't the debit charge be pending?
And to top it all off, now I have to call Kaiser because they messed with me too! The last time I refilled this prescription, I went to the pharmacy to pick it up and they only gave me 30 days for $10 when in the past I would get a 90 day supply for $10. I was told that I could still get that price if I ordered it by mail. So I did and what did they charge me? $20!!!! Stupid electronic everything! And another thing, if I only had 36 cents in the account, why would the bank approve the transaction? Why don't they just decline it like a credit card? Because that's how they get their money, silly rabbit.
So I spent my whole lunch hour on the phone with USBank and I got no resolution. I can't get no satisfaction.

Fun with reading

A little game from Quiet Life:
1. Grab the nearest book
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the text of the next 3 sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don't you dare dig for that "cool" or "intellectual" book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it. Just grab what is closest!

Here's mine from the book closest to me, my bible that I keep at my desk here at work (never know when I might need some serious guidance!):

At that time I said to you, "You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone. The LORD your God has increased your numbers so that today you are as many as the stars in the sky. May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!" -Deuteronomy 1:9-11

Wow. It even has an exclamation mark (my favorite punctuation, if you haven't noticed). I will claim it as a blessing. Thank you, Lord.

Illustration Friday-On Tuesday!

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I am so happy to have this done early. I loved this topic because it allowed me to draw one of my favorite types of dolls. Boudoir dolls were not always for boudoirs. Flappers used to carry their dolls around like accessories. Kind of like today's celebrities with their chickens! Some dolls like this one were even made with a cigarette in their mouth! This was done in pen and ink and so far, it is my favorite submission. Flappers...the first party girls! I raise my glass!